Fledging flyers - December's messaholics anonymous meeting place

[droitwitchmum]

Everyone welcome, newcomers and old(ish) flappers alike!

Here you can do any of the following:

• repeat or start baby steps

• repeat baby steps + do 15 mins a day decluttering in the current zone

• reinforce babysteps and do daily missions if you have finished decluttering

As Christmas is approaching I will also be posting Christmas missions.

I'll post links early in the morning on the relevant day while I'm making the coffee and brewing tea. There might even be toast...

Good luck!

Good Morning all!

Everyone seems to be having a lie in this morning. Here too. DH went to work early and I went back to bed. DD1 arrived after a 13 hour journey yesterday. I am so happy to have her home for a week. We sat up having a lovely, mature mum/daughter talk last night. She has grown up so much in the year she has lived away from home. She is lovely!

I was woken up by a car sliding down our hill and smashiing into a wall at the bottom. Good job my car is now on the drive thanks to the skip being removed yesterday! DH phoned from work to tell me not to go out. He skidded into a flower display at his work on arrival!

Quick catch up with some of you:

Swan - If you can teach your DD to knit when you are in a grouchy mood, I am mightily impressed!

MC - Hope you feel better very soon. LOL at your DS exploding with excitment out of his clothes. My DS was the same and even now he is 13 he will only wear shorts in the house and I have to nag him to wear trousers even while it is freezing when we leave the house! DH only wears shorts around the house too!

PMPY - Welcome back! I'm glad you are going to be getting a new cat. As SR said their personalities are so different that getting to know a new one is lovely.

DTG - Welcome back!

MrsDD - I missed Taylor in Corrie, not really a big fan of corrie, so don't watch it often. I cannot believe the babyfaced players this year. I am convinced that Japanese guy was about 12! I must be getting so old!!!! Forgot to say that I really don't like Part either. I am sort of undecided this year overall. Someone will grow on me over the next few days. Do you watch the league through the year too? I have never been to a big event, have you? It looks such fun. I have hinted a few times about tickets. Highlight of my week is my Thursday evening in front of telly with a little tipple.

Right, kids are driving me crazy, must go! Got up and are demanding breakfast to be cooked! Not going to be much flying today, just maintenance and washing!

HAve a good day everyone!

Hello again everyone

Phew! Just back on here for a bit of sanity ...

... dh has taken dd to the office for a little while thank heavens (there's only him there so she's going to create havoc organise the stationery cupboard) while I try and stop flapping about ineffectually and actually do something productive ...

Loving all the antics of everyone else's dc though ..

MC's ds in the buff, MrsGrumpy's VERY, very excited ds1 ...(great list btw MrsG)

....and your lovely post about your dd1 PF and your dh phoning you etc

...and WtDs dh's valiant struggle to get home in time for Christmas, bearing the turkey

and SwanRiver's description of the hoar frost

Dreamteam finding her house isn't that bad after all

and PushmePullyou adopting a cat

sniff....sniff

oh dear, have raging pmt and you've set me off now,

[SC sinks hides under pile of paper chains and reaches for cooking brandy box of tissues]

Take care everyone on the ice, and particularly in the freezing fog MrsDingdong and thank heavens both of your car "incidents" turned out OK WtD and PF

Right, must follow Dreamteam's example and set the timer to 15 mins again ...and START AGAIN!!!

Hello to Mellie and Optimistle and Pluto if you are about ...

Oh no, forgot, MiniM and flaps wings at anyone else I have missed

Hi all

Having a quick cuppa in kitchen whilst DS destroys the loungue plays nicely with his play date

Done so far

Detail clean of en suite- hands and knees job and my god its sparkling!!

2 loads of washing in, 1 load dry, 1 load drying (Thank god the tumble drier repair man came yesterday and fixed it in seconds!! It was getting quite bad what with all the snow and frost)

All washing folded and about to start ironing

To do

Cook lunch

Prepare 'cold meat platter' for tonights Slimming World party

Find party dress and see if needs ironing

Pack for Christmas- I head off to work in the morning and then straight from there to my sister's and am not back till Boxing Day, so ineed to leave for work ready for a holiday AND Christmas - whose dumb idea was that!!!

-------

SC/ CTGH Thank you! Thats so so sweet of you to miss me and notice [hgrin] I feel all warm and fuzzy. Hope you are feeling less tetchy now. I did just ROAR at the lounge and it went quiet and the scary sounding banging stopped

MC Get well soon! And thank you for keeping this going, when lots of us have fallen around you and being there when we come back

Hi MrsD I thinkwe are very local by the sound of your posts. I am in Farnborough, but we were very lucky not to be hit as bad as Alton & Basingstoke. Ex (DS' Dad) left work in Aldermaston at 3 and got back to Basingstoke at 11.30 pm!!!!!!!!! Normally a 20 minute drive. I heard lots of people slept in pubs and church in Alton and it was horrendous there too. Meanwhile my sister in Woking happily poppped out to get her nails done !!

Hello Swan I think you joined just as I went AWOL, and are obviously an old pro. So nice to meet you properly. And glad the 15 min reminder helped

PMPY Glad you are back too, and what lovely news about your cat. Will she be able to join you for Christmas?

Walkthe D Good list and fingers firmly crossed for DH to be homeward bound at a sensible time tonight

Hi to MrsGG and PF and wonders if Mellies DS has dressed yet ...

Catch you all later- now I really must start the ironing!

afternoon all,

bit late posting here but have done the goddawful job that is the xmas food shop at half 7 this morning and by the time we got home, unpacked etc. it was lunchtime

pmpy and dtg we miiiiiisssssssed you (how was i supposed to cope without my idol ). in answer to your query dtg ds was dressed this morning but is now ensconced in his bedroom in his t-shirt and jumper and absolutely nothing else . oh and congraultations on the new cat pmpy given time i am sure will fit right in.

wtd hope the turkey and dh get back ok

sc hope you've managed to find some sanity...brandy is far better in these situation than tissues...medicinal of course .

pf what a lovely post about your daughter i hope me and devil child my lovely dd will have that kind of relationship in years to come. lol at dh and the bikes....though i understand the fury. when dh tidies up all he does is move stuff from one room to another and can never understand why i lose the plot .

mrsgruffalo what a wonderful thing for ds to say, you can't beat that constant look of excitement on their faces at this time of year...however in our house excitement has now boiled over into "if you don't start doing what you are told father christmas will not be coming to visit you" screamed every 30 mins at the top of my voice . a shining example of parenting i am not

mc hope you are feeling a bit better. panic..what panic i do not know what you are talking about ,

swanriver can you come and do me some BAKING BAKING BAKING please because frankly i am rubbish at it .

mrsdingdong am so glad i am not the only one that has done away with the missions at the moment (mellie realises that she doesn't think she has ever done them properly )

have run out of my allotted mn time now so big waves to everyone else who i haven't had time to post to individually.

the rest of today goes like this:-
washing
dw
general tidy
finish present wrapping
deliver some presents
have a nap

must admit have decided that majority of this will be done when dc's are in bed as i think it was mrs gruffalo's wonderful fridge saying which recognised the impossibility of tidying while dc's are about.

have a good afternoon everyone. will check back later.

Hi Ladies

I tried to post yesterday but something odd happened and it disappeared! The post was largely about the fact that it had taken me 4 hours to drive home the night before (usually 30 mins) and I had inadvertantly ordered 2 geese...how is that possible ...oh well, I'm planning to have confit goose legs and other yummy things in February/March so I'm looking on the bright side.

DS wore himself out this morning and fell asleep in his buggy on the way home from town so is now chatting and kicking in his cot instead of napping so I'm trying to sit here quietly in the hope he will go to sleep! He's going to be exhausted if he doesn't as he only slept for 10 minutes.

I think I'm just about ready for Christmas in a junk stuffed away in drawers kind of way!

Going to try to finish the present wrapping now (just stocking presents left to do) and have a cup of tea if I feel brave enough to switch the noisy kettle on!

Waves to all...back later to catch up on your news.

Hello again

MM TWO Geeses (Gooses? Just Geese? Oh I dont know!) Thats just excessive LOL

Mellie Thanks hun, but I fear I have fallen a long way and am no longer your idol I shall have to try harder as I missed you too! I am quite in awe of 'alloted MN time' Do you actually stick to it? I have the same prob but with facebook where I spend FAR too much time

Today's to do
To do

Cook lunch -DONE

Prepare 'cold meat platter' for tonights Slimming World party -DONE

Find party dress and see if needs ironing Found and it did so DONE

Pack for Christmas- I head off to work in the morning and then straight from there to my sister's and am not back till Boxing Day, so ineed to leave for work ready for a holiday AND Christmas shock- whose dumb idea was that!!! -Not done

However I have ironed four baskets of washing and last washing load is in machine so yay me!!

The reality of Christmas Day being 2 days away hit this morning!
Dashed to tesco to do shopping then have put fruit for quicky Xmas pud to soak until tomorrow and made the base of a banana caramel dessert-type thing (alternative pud for DC who don't like Xmas pud!)

Going to DSis Christmas Day. She is doing main course & I am doing pud. Our family tradition is for a minimum of 3 puddings so I'm doing ok as bought a yule log this morning + cream & custard so everyone should be catered for.

1 load of washing on, DS in pants but nothing else, about to start ironing, lounge cleared with help of DS (he has just come in singing Jingle Bells), cleaned fish tank, oh and I am dressed to shoes but only because I haven't got round to taking them off!

There is yule log and mulled wine if you would like to help yourselves

'Dashing through the snow, with a one horse open sleigh etc etc...'

Woo hoo - I've finished my last work before Christmas and sent it off

Ham is on top of the woodburner braising in it's Coke - if turns out horrible I'm so going after Delia.

Kitchen not really touched yet.

Dining room done.

Living room done.

DH's Christmas pressies wrapped from the DC's.

DH at the Portsmouth and waiting to board the ferry, so everything on track.

I'm off for a bath and then to do some ironing.

Have realised I'm not going to have time to make Christmas napkins - so we're going to have to make do with paper ones.

Still got to ice the cake and do loads of other things, but that's for tomorrow.

Have a nice evening - seeing as it's Christmas I've cracked open the Baileys and mince pies - knock yourselves out.

There would be no point in going after Delia if the ham goes wrong, it's a Nigella recipe (I'm so thick!)

evening ladies,

all relatively calm here in the mellie household. am sat here mn-ing while having a little festive glass of vino and watching dh wrap the stocking fillers. house is tidy, washing relatively on track, dishes clean children sleeping. all is right with the world .

tomorrow's plan looks like this:-

last minute tidy/clean downstairs and bathroom (have given up on our bedroom as can't even reach wardrobe due to stupid amount of presents.
present delivering to our closest friends (ie not a chore)
various bits of culinary prep for big day.
relax and enjoy the day with the family.

all calm now, bet when i check in tomorrow it won't be quite as relaxed .

have a good evening, am going to get an early night.

All is calm too here.
eExcept I'm still washing up how did that happen?
took a fancy to re-organise all baking ingredients as keep losing some vital part in middle of recipes

Made two smallish cakes today
cleaned out some more lurkers from the fridge
cleaned out gunk at back of fridge vent
made a smallish casserole for family use over next few days

need to think of puddingy thing for five people for xmas day as no-one likes Xmas pud - choc pavlova make tomorrow?

Still need more and more eggs...

Wow homemade Christmas napkins WTD!!!Don't think you should worry about those....

Quick opinion needed

Is this inspired or a little too control freakish?

I came up with the idea of writing a week day menu, and decided to include breakfast.
Morning generally go like this

'DS! What do you want for breakfast? No I dont want to play power rangers, what cereal do you want? Come one DS, Just answer or I will decide. DS! Will you listen to me!!!'

So I decided to do the following

Monday - Coco Pops
Tuesday - Weetabix
Wednesday - Moon & Stars
Thursday - Shreddies
Friday - Coco Rocks

(oops that should of course say unsweetened porridge for most days this is PURELY for illustrative purposes)

Told DS (almost 5) and he laughed and said it was good idea, but I just wondered if was maybe turning into a weirdo with all my lists ...
And is it really and that I am laminating it?

And is it really and that I am laminating it?

Should read
And is it really sad that I am laminating it?

No, you are not weird.
Children are weird, because they love that sort of thing

Finally finished washing up
Dh has just said there's nothing in the fridge and we will have nothing to eat for Christmas

I need to laminate him. That will show him [faggravation]

Um, wouldn't describe it as exactly calm in terms of organisation here ....but everyone has gone to bed except me so it IS quiet ...

dreamteam definitely not sad but scarily efficient (partic as you are doing this on the eve of Christmas eve)!! Seriously, if it makes your morning easier why not? And 5 yr olds love being able to cross things off, stick on a gold star etc...

Well done on your ironing and safe travelling tomorrow x

As it happens, I've also included breakfasts that dd likes in my menu plan because I'm pale and befuddled of a morning and anything that means I don't have to think is a bonus ...also we made the mistake of giving her too much choice early on (never remember having any choice at all as a child) so it cuts down on negotiation time.... Er, is it sad that I am going in to this much detail, partic on eve of Christmas eve??? Don't answer that pls!

I'm v. impressed with your baking-fest Swan ...

Wow - you sound supremely organised and calm in the Mellie household. Well done for surviving your mega-shop so early this morning. My day looking very similar to yours tomorrow:

• last min bits of cooking prep (mainly stuffing)
• last min tidy of sitting room (did "deep - clean" today)
• local card & present delivery - finish last bits of wrapping
• find crackers
• ring all 309 godchildren

WtD so happy that your dh is on his way!! Don't worry - have done Nigella ham/coke recipe - works a treat!

MC you sound as if you are better - certainly hope so as you are getting loads done as usual - take it steady .... 'Ding, Dong Merrily on Fly' etc etc (that's enough - ed)

lol MiniMarmite and your TWO geese!! Gosh!! Now there's a challenge ...at least you'll have loads of goose grease to make sublime roast potatoes and yr confit idea sounds fabulous ...may I say, with no innuendo intended, that I identify with your stuffed drawers?

Oh dear (I need the discipline of *Mellie's alloted Mnsnet time)...must go to bed ...dd has been threatening to creep downstairs tomorrow morning and wake us with her somewhat shaky rendition of chopsticks on the piano ....my only hope is that she will spare us until at least 6am!!

Goodnight all and sleep tight x

Hello all

Well I've got 10 minutes to go till Christmas Eve and it is quiet and peaceful here, the calm before the storm!!!!

Have had quite a productive day -
Finish towel cakes Done
Do handprint pictures with dc's for grandparents Done
Dust the lounge half heartedly Done
Look for hat I bought DH for christmas - haven't seen it since I bought it in Nov Found in bag on the stairs
Wrap DH's presents Done only just finished that's why I'm still up at nearly midnight
Do at least one load of washing Done 2

Tomorrow is going to be manic, kids are extremely excited, we had more snow today but it's just too icy to be out and about so can't even send them outside to use up some energy.

Still haven't had time to catch up on the thread so wishes everyone a very Happy Christmas and hands round a tin of Quality Street and see you all on Boxing day

Good morning - Christmas Eve has arrived!

So that I don't have to post tomorrow and you don't have to log on, I'm including tomorrow's links today.

Today's babystep is the swish & swipe! Vvv important if you don't do this already

Tomorrow's babystep is a reading one so we don't have to worry about not doing it on Christmas Day!

Today's mission is to change your bed and make it lovely for a good sleep tonight. I was wondering whether to do ours.

Tomorrow's mission is to go to bed early in the lovely bed you made yesterday

My day mainly consists of icing the cake and finishing off the banana caramel torte. All presents wrapped and sorted. DNeice coming over later to entertain DS and WE HAVE SNOW AT LAST . Just a sprinkle, so that will do!

Have a great day

Well done for finding that hat Mrs GG
Mellie - that torte sounds like baking to me...
SC - Chopsticks on piano - it would make my day if one of my children could eventually play that on our newly installed p - they are still on this is c middle c.
whoever did four baskets of ironing - [fadmiration]

Well today I have menu-planned on a large piece of card (not yet laminated alas) to show dh the meal schedule for next five days as he is doubtful there will be any...
however I can spy some gaps in provisioning.. so need to buy
gherkins
raspberries
eggs
oranges
watercress

Oh I'm sorry I have confused Mellie with MummyClaus on the torte.
Happy Christmas everyone - till next week.

Morning.

MC - Are you really expecting us to do anything today and tomorrow? You have got to be kidding

Why was everyone on the ISle of WIght in the supermarket at 7.00 this morning? I thought I ahd booked my private shopping time. Everyone else should have been asleep!!! Anyway, done now. Bank balance is an awful lot lighter than it was at 6.59!! BUT, I am now done. If I have forgotten anything, then tough luck! Mountains of wrapping to do today. Elderly parents coming around this afternoon, which could be slightly stressful due to DM's dementia, which the DCs find mildly amusing, but i find very difficult. Once that's done (oh that sounds heartless, doesn't it??? Sorry, I ma not that bad a daughter!) then relax and enjoy the next few days!

Have a very good Christmas everyone. fgrin] >>

Morning All

Christmas Eve, Yay...I'm getting so excited (I'm such a child)...supposed to be working from home this morning but my inbox is clear so...

WTD please do let us know how Nigelia's () ham turns out - I consider making that almost every year and never quite get around to it. Glad DH is on his way!

Dreaming menus = good; laminating = good...but then some do consider me a control freak!

Swan did you make a pav? The Delia recipe never fails if you are still looking for a recipe or how about sticky toffee pudding? I sometimes make that as it can be made a few days in advance and doesn't have to be kept in the fridge which can be useful when the fridge is bursting at the seams.

MC glad you have snow! Banana caramel torte sounds lovely! Thanks for the links...I can't believe I forgot to S&S this morning! Changed bed yesterday and going away tonight, yay! Thanks for being our great and esteemed leader .

PF well done on the shopping and I hope your parents' visit goes ok. Must be very distressing to have a parent with dementia. Hope tomorrow is a relaxing day for you.

MrsG - wow, that was a late night! What are towel cakes, I'm intrigued?

SC hope you were spared Chopsticks this morning and again tomorrow!

Mellie I have an image of you sitting serenely sipping wine issuing wrapping instructions to your DH .

I'm off now to do Christmas - Christmassy hugs to you all, sorry I've not mentioned everyone by name. Thanks for all the fun we've had these past few months and the support too. May your Christmas trees sparkly tidily through Christmas and into the New Year!

morning everyone,

no time for a big catch up apart from to say mm that's exactly what it was like .

as a lovely christmas gift dd has decided to catch worms from somewhere. she's been up every night for the last few days screaming and itching, i thought it was nappy rash but spotted one of the little blighters this morning. i really hope the medicine starts working quicly and we get a quiet xmas eve tonight. no flying today just panicing. .

if i don't get back on i would just like to say a massive thank you to you all for making this xmas just a little less stressful than the others by virtue of a house that wasn't completely destroyed . i hope you all have a fantastic christmas and a fabulous time with your loved ones. as mm so succinctly put it as i am prone to waffling, thanks for all the support, the tabards and the giggles.

merry christmas from melliechristmas.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hello to all Fledgling Flyers!!

[Wafts the scent of Nordmann pine in your direction]

Glad to know that Flying doesn't stop during Christmas MummyClaus Thank you so much for keeping us all on the straight and narrow during December. We are really lucky that you are continuing in to January.

And thank you to everyone for all the Flytastic support on this thread. My house (and my head!) is a whole lot better for it!! And more to do in 2010 ...

I probably won't be back on here until 28th or 29th, so in the meantime, just wanted to send you all a message via my profile (first photo)

Happy Christmas!!!! xxxxx

Just a quick check in to say

HAPPY CHRISTMAS to all my wonderful flying buddies and see you on Boxing Day!!

Oh thank you for validating my laminating

Good luck getting everything done everyone